Russian martial art training and kettlebell training involves elements of strength, flexibility and relaxation. Many would argue that speed and technique should also be included, but given that you have trained in all three of these disciplines, then speed will come naturally. Technique is immaterial: it is related to what you do, not how you do it.

Training, on the other hand, is how you do what you do. The what is irrelevant. It is the how that matters. A boxer cares not what a karate student does, but only what he himself does. A man or woman facing opponents is not concerned with what others can do, but only with they do themselves. It is not the ‘what’ but the ‘how’ that matters, and the ‘how’ is related to training, practice and knowledge.

The training of Russian martial artists is designed to improved the ‘how’. Russian martial art has no need of pre-orchestrated movements or katas as Japanese and Chinese martial arts have. Much has been written about Russian martial arts and their means of attack and self defence, a lot of which is based on the popular view of the Russian Special Forces. Most Special Forces can employ the techniques used by their Russian counterparts, but it is the Russian methods of training that make the difference.

Pavel Tsatsouline, trainer to the Russian military and then the American Special Forces and other military personnel, teaches you the secrets of the super-strong and of attaining supreme martial arts power. He does this through use of Russian kettlebells and the tension and relaxation techniques used by the Cossacks who could slice a man from shoulder to buttocks with only a light one handed sabre.

The Cossacks trained by standing in a lake or river up to their waist and then slicing into the water with their sabres for hours on end. The secret was to be in total relaxation until the moment of strike when all the power of the body was concentrated in the one blow, and then reverting to total bodily relaxation immediately after. In that way, strength and stamina were maintained while the blow itself was imparted with the maximum possible strength of the whole body.

Flexibility is the true secret behind supreme martial art power, and the one bodily attribute that is most ignored and misunderstood by the majority of martial art exponents. Russian martial art techniques make best use of supreme strength and absolute power through the understanding of how to properly relax between blows. The supreme power of a martial art punch is used through a total understanding of the levers of the body, the muscles that move them and the relaxation that allows these muscles to exert maximum power to the levers.

A powerful punch is a rapid snap with maximum power and then total relaxation until the next punch. Russians are trained in dynamic relaxation exercises in all athletic training, and the fast and loose techniques they use are ideal for the rigors of absolute mastery in martial arts.

Russian martial art training and kettlebell training is not the theatrically disciplined art of the Chinese and Japanese, but a technique designed for maximum power and effect in attack and not just self defence. The use of the power of the human body can be maximized only by developing the supreme strength possible through kettlebell exercise, and the flexibility and relaxation techniques as taught by the master of the Russian martial art, Pavel Tsatsouline, master teacher of Russian and American Special Forces personnel.

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